Chapter Text
Nicole sighed as she watched her best friend Matthew kiss his girlfriend Hanna as she proudly waved her new engagement ring around, tears of joy sparkling in her eyes. Nicole had happily helped her friend plan his proposal and was genuinely happy for them, she just wished that she had something, someone too. It was no fun to be at someone’s engagement party alone. She heard Matthew begin telling the story of he met Hanna in the background and smiled softly. She remembered the day like it was yesterday. April 15th, 2008.
Matthew had just celebrated his 18th birthday. After a day (and a long night) of hardcore partying, they were making their way back home, extremely hungover. Matthew refused to take off his sunglasses, claiming that the sun was ‘evil’ and Nicole had ushered the pair of them quickly into the first open café she’d spotted. She was in desperate need of caffeine and he was in desperate need of sobering up. Waiting in the queue for their turn, she’d heard a series of forlorn moans and groans emanating from her friend, and turning to acknowledge him, realised he’d taken off his glasses and was pouting sullenly.
“What’s up, bud?”
“It’s nearly up.”
“Ah.”
He’d spent the beginning of their night of partying hopping around excitedly; shouting to anyone who’d listen that tonight was the night. Tonight he would meet his soulmate, the one he was destined for, his one true love. The countdown on his wrist was showing X:XV:XLI, which meant that he was 10 hours, 15 minutes and 41 seconds away from meeting the girl of his dreams.
Everyone had a soulmate clock. No one knew why, it was just fact. You were simply born with a clock on your wrist, that supposedly counted down to when you would meet the person you belonged with forever. Studies had tried to figure out why they existed but there seemed to be no explanation for it. Some people tried to challenge the clocks by dating other people but the only relationships that ever seemed to last were when people met their soulmates, leading to them being aptly named ‘soulmate clocks’. It wasn’t always a happy story though. Some people’s soulmates died before they could meet. However, if that happened, the clock would usually just stop, not disappear, just stop, like a clock that’s out of battery.
Sometimes, people just didn’t believe enough in the soulmate theory and would go out of their way to prevent their own meeting. Some people, usually the ones trying to challenge the soulmate clock, would say that they had found happiness and love without their soulmate clock’s help and therefore whoever their soulmate was would have to find someone else too. Only it didn’t work like that. Once the countdown was up, that was it. If your soulmate didn’t turn up, the clock didn’t just reset or start again. That would be it. You’d be left with a clock reading 0:0:0 for the rest of your life. That was a legitimate fear for most people. That was what was making Matthew so down.
By now his clock was reading 0:IV:XII which meant that he had less than 5 minutes before his clock was out. He had been so sure that he’d meet his true love and now with his head hanging, he was sure that she was a lost cause to him. He kept staring hard at the roman numerals on his wrist, as if he was willing them to change, to give him some more time, but there was no changing a soulmate clock. Everyone’s was different, from the language, to whether it was written in numbers or symbols or words but the result was the same. Either a soulmate or…nothing.
“Latte with extra shot of espresso for Matthew!”
A voice shook Matthew from his staring and he quickly shuffled towards the counter for his coffee. As he did Nicole took the opportunity to glance at her own clock, and she couldn’t help feeling bitter. 06:03:04:15:36. Hers was a long one. 6 years, 3 days, 4 hours, 15 minutes and 36 seconds, that’s when she’d meet her soulmate. Nicole had become impatient long ago, dating people on and off since she was 16. She’d come out when she was 17 and had never looked back, finally free from making up fake boyfriends and pretending she was straight for her mother. Not that being gay had ever hindered her dating prospects, being a natural beauty with her deep red hair, and soulful, brown eyes, it was no wonder that she attracted attention wherever she went. Partner that with her strong morals and values, protective spirit, geeky wit and humour and she was a total catch.
Her current girlfriend, Shay, was someone who believed in challenging the soulmate clock. Her clock was reading 04:16:29:55 and she often said that a soulmate clock wouldn’t dictate who she could fall in love with. Nicole wasn’t sure how she felt about it. She enjoyed dating and everything that came with it but she wasn’t so sure if the soulmate clock could be ignored or deterred. Shay just laughed at her.
“Science is what makes up the world, babe, not some magical gobbledegook on your wrist.”
Shay even went so far as to cover her clock with makeup, and often made a point of not seeing Nicole as she believed that it was soulmate clocks that ruined ‘normal relationships’ because people were put off by the idea that they were possibly with the ’wrong person’. Nicole was pulled out of her musings by a voice calling her name.
“Nicole! Nicole! Look, come and see!” Matthew was calling her and beckoning wildly towards him. She had never seen him look so animated whilst hungover before.
She hurried over to him. “What? What’s up? Did I get your order wrong?”
“No! Come here, quick! You remember Hanna Farrow, right? From high school?”
Nicole followed his gesturing hand towards the barista whom she vaguely recognised. She was fairly small in stature, petite, and had short, blonde hair with pretty blue eyes framed with long lashes.
“Uh…sure. You were head cheerleader weren’t you?”
Hanna giggled while handing Nicole her cappuccino. “No but close. I was in the cheer squad, mostly doing the gymnastics and tumbling.”
Nicole had never really been one for football, finding herself more of a baseball gal but she had always gone to the games with Matthew and a few other friends, knowing that it was important to Matthew to support the school football team, even though they were pretty bad. The surname Farrow seemed to ring a few bells…
It suddenly dawned on her. “Oh my god. Farrow?”
Matthew and Hanna burst into laughter. “I thought she’d forgotten my sister for a moment!”
Nicole’s mouth was wide open. “YOU’RE Ashley Farrow’s sister?!”
She nodded. “That’s right. She was head cheerleader in the squad about two years before I got in. She’s still single, you know.”
Nicole remembered Ashley Farrow well. She’d been head cheerleader, was in the year above Nicole’s and was drop dead gorgeous. Blonde hair that probably reached down to her lower back, blue eyes like none she’d ever seen, and curves in all the right places. Nicole realised that maybe she had had a reason to go to all those football games after all.
Matthew was still laughing. “Sorry, Nicole’s spoken for now. But hey, give her Ash’s number, just in case.”
Nicole scowled at him. “What happened that night wasn’t even my fault, I’ll have you know. It was Vodka and Tequila’s.”
She’d gotten drunk on her 17th birthday with Matthew and they’d crashed Ashley’s birthday party. Playing Spin the Bottle had led to Nicole kissing Ashley, then 7 minutes in Heaven with Ashley which quickly became being led up the stairs by Ashley and into her room where Nicole promptly lost her virginity.
She brought herself back to reality. “As nice as this reunion is, what were you screaming for me to look at?”
Matthew and Hanna looked at each other shyly, then slowly showed their wrists to Nicole where it dawned on her. Their soulmate clocks were both at zero. They were soulmates. He’d found her. She watched with them as their soulmate clocks began to shift and form into what everyone hoped for. ∞ the infinity symbol appeared almost simultaneously and they beamed at each other.
“Well, are you free tonight? I’ll take you to dinner?”
Hanna had smiled coyly. “I’d like that. I get off at 4.”
Now here they were, 5 years down the line, and with Hanna expecting their first baby, Nicole had suggested to Matthew that it was about time he popped the question. She was elated when Matthew had told her that he was expecting a little girl and that Nicole had been chosen to be her godmother. Now as she watched Matthew and his new fiancée hug each other close as friends and family took pictures, she stole a quick glance at her wrist. 01:06:11:45:19. She sighed and covered it up with her sleeve.
She thought back to her breakup with Shay all those years ago and though that perhaps Shay had the right idea with covering up her soulmate clock. All it did was make Nicole depressed. She was 23 now, and her soulmate was nowhere to be seen. She’d loved Shay, and yet with Nicole making her way through the police academy training and Shay going through medical school, they’d not been able to make it work, so why should a soulmate make any difference? Shaking the negative thoughts from her mind, she turned her attention back towards Matthew and Hanna. Movement at the side of her caught her eye and she glanced towards it, her eyes settling on Hanna’s sister Ashley who was looking at Nicole appreciatively. Nicole raised an eyebrow at her. Ashley hadn’t been the only person to look her over tonight. She’d had to come from work and was still in her police uniform, khakis, teal shirt with badge and gun belt (minus the gun, she’d made sure to leave that in her precinct locker). Ashley was making her way towards her now.
“Well, well, what a mighty fine police officer you make, Nicole Haught.”
Nicole grinned and feigned seriousness. “It’s Officer Haught now, Miss.”
Mischief sparked in Ashley’s eyes. “I hear that you’re leaving our little town too…that true, Officer Haught?”
“’Fraid it is. Been offered a Deputy Sheriff position down in Purgatory.”
“Never heard of it.”
“Neither have I, but can’t turn down being Deputy Sheriff.”
“Well, Officer Haught…” Ashley purred and started to sashay towards the entrance, turning briefly to wink and beckon seductively to Nicole “better give you a good send-off then.”
Nicole subtly followed her out of the party with Matthew seeing her and Ashley, and putting two and two together, giving her a not so subtle thumbs up before going back to his guests. Nicole continued outside finding Ashley waiting inside a taxi, who all but pulled her in.
“Come on, Deputy Sheriff; let’s make your last night one to remember.”
Nicole’s lips curved into an amused smirk. It couldn’t hurt, right?